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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28578453">Codeword: Christmas Tree</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/SonnenFlower/pseuds/SonnenFlower'>SonnenFlower</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Codeword: Christmas [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Christmas Tree, M/M, Sirius is a bit of an arse, but he has good reasons</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 05:07:46</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,090</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28578453</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/SonnenFlower/pseuds/SonnenFlower</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes a stunned, glittering dog is the best decoration for a Christmas tree, isn't it?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Sirius Black/Remus Lupin</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Codeword: Christmas [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2056443</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Codeword: Christmas Tree</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=TheDophinAnimagus">TheDophinAnimagus</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Happy late holidays sunshine ;)</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Remus loved decorating the Christmas tree every year. It was like he could bring a part of the forest into his own home and he’d swear, that Moony was a bit less on edge on Christmas which he largely attributed to the Christmas tree. But this time was even more special. Sirius and he had decided to finally spending Christmas on their own, like a true little family.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Remus knew for a fact that Sirius didn’t miss having kids of his own in the slightest since he had Harry, but sometimes Remus wished they had their own little pup. Not that he’d ever been that careless, one year of teaching at Hogwarts and all that had happened back then had made sure he’d never try for his own kids, but still- With no kids around and the law only allowing them a civil union and not a full marriage he sometimes felt like their relationship was somehow less, somehow never enough, like they could never be truly family in everyone else’s eyes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>So celebrating together, raising a Christmas tree together all of it meant so much for Remus, if only his sloppy haired dog in human disguise would get the memo!</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Once they had pulled up the tree and Remus had decided that it was finally perfectly straight - useless! Sirius had told him, nothing would ever be perfectly straight in their home - they had started to place the fairy lights. But for no apparent reason, Sirius had huffed halfway through Remus' explanation of the perfect light distributed due to fairy light placements and had turned into a dog.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>That was approximately thirteen minutes and fourth six seconds ago and he had yet to turn back. At first, Remus had tried to argue with the dog but that was as useless as he already knew it would be, so soon enough he had turned back to the tree to keep decorating. If Sirius wouldn’t take this seriously he’d just do it on his own and he better not expected any special Christmas sex later. Certainly not. The new stuff in the red and green box under their bed could wait till next year. See what good that would do.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Only there was one thing Sirius couldn’t handle and Remus knew that all too well and that was being ignored. Which brought them to approximately seven minutes and twelve seconds into Sirius' newfound life as an annoying pet, when he had started to “help” decorating the tree after all by fetching after the fairy lights and playing with the tree ornaments that still needed to go up the tree. But Remus just went on with his task, if you grew up with Sirius, James and Peter as your friends your tolerance for idiotic behaviour and annoyance would automatically rise to unknown heights. So a stupid dog was nothing to stop Remus at this point in his life.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sirius must have had a similar realisation when three minutes later Remus still wouldn’t acknowledge him at all, which resulted in another change of behaviour. This time he just lay in front of the tree, looking up at Remus with his soulful brown dog eyes and pouted - or however else you called it when it was done by a dog.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Remus just rolled his eyes. Honestly, Sirius had used that trick so often by now, Remus would be a very wealthy man had gotten a Knut every time he had seen that look. Somehow that thought annoyed Remus more than anything else so far. Were they so old, so stuck in their ways, that Sirius didn’t think it necessary anymore to come up with new tricks? Was that them getting old and being together out of habit? Or did Sirius just think it was needless to surprise Remus, did he take him for granted?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Spelling the last of the ornaments onto the tree Remus shook his head. This kind of thinking really wasn’t what he had envisioned for their holidays, but it wouldn’t do him any good if he lingered on them too far. That was one thing he had learned over the years. So he had decorated the tree on his own? What was that to him? They had a beautiful tree in a beautiful home and they would spend Christmas together as the family they were.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A smile bloomed on Remus' face while the thought crossed his mind, exactly thirteen minutes and forty-eight seconds after Sirius had turned into a dog and exactly one point two seconds before said dog crouched down on the floor and jumped headfirst into the newly finished Christmas tree.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Remus only starred. There in the middle of his perfectly decorated tree was suddenly a big black dog trying to hold onto the trunk so as not to crash back on the floor immediately. Half the ornaments he had spelt on the tree had already suffered that exact fate and at least one was shattered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>This was too much. He could try to be understanding as much as he liked, but even he had his limits. Rage flaring up in Remus, he made a very short motion with his wand and the dog in his tree froze. That was better. Repairing the broken ornament and spelling all of them back on the tree he had an idea.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You know what’s the difference between a dog and a Christmas ornament?” He questioned the tree “Ornaments glitter!” and with another swosh of his wand, so did Padfoot.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Remus nodded to himself and left the living room. It was time for a long soak in the bathtub and he knew Sirius would join him soon, his petrificus wasn’t that strong, and maybe Sirius would explain his behaviour then. But when he sank into the hot water, he already had an idea.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He had always wished for things like the Christmas tree to ensure himself, that they actually were a real family, thinking about that now he could almost hear Sirius in his ear; Is it really a true family Christmas without some family drama? And Sirius was probably right about that, not that he’d ever admitted that.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>When he opened his eyes again the man that had filled his thoughts stood right in front of him and just got rid of his jumper.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You know why I did it, right?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Remus just nodded. He was way too occupied with Sirius’ hair that was still glittering. He had no idea how Sirius pulled it off, but glittering hairs might be his newest kink.</span>
</p>
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